Background Decompressive craniectomy is an important surgical treatment for patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Several reports have been published on the efficacy of non-watertight sutures in duraplasty performed in decompressive craniectomy. This study sought to determine the safety and feasibility of the non-suture dural closure technique in decompressive craniectomy. Methods A total of 106 patients were enrolled at a single trauma center between January 2017 and December 2018. We retrospectively collected data and classified the patients into nonsuture and suture duraplasty craniectomy groups. We compared the characteristics of patients and their intra/postoperative findings such as operative time, blood loss, imaging findings, complications, and Glasgow Outcome Scale scores. Results There were 37 and 69 patients in the non-suture and suture duraplasty groups, respectively. There were no significant differences between the two groups concerning general characteristics. The operative time was significantly lower in the non-suture duraplasty group than in the suture duraplasty group (150 min vs. 205 min; p = 0.002). Furthermore, blood loss was significantly less severe in the non-suture duraplasty group than in the suture duraplasty group (1000 mL vs. 1500 mL; p = 0.028). There were no other significant differences. Conclusion Non-suture duraplasty involved shorter operative times and less severe blood losses than suture duraplasty. Other complications and prognoses were similar across groups. Therefore, the non-suture duraplasty in decompressive craniectomy is a safe and feasible surgical technique.

In general, in digital infrared thermographic imaging (DITI) of patients with unilateral spinal radicular pain, the thermal pattern of the extremities of the side of lesion shows hypothermia compared to the opposite, intact side. However, sometimes, DITI shows hyperthermia on the side of the lesion, and this variation can cause confusion. We compared the data of both hypothermia and hyperthermia patients to clarify the factors determining different thermal characteristics in spinal radiculopathy. We retrospectively collected data from patients who underwent DITI at a single center. The final cohort (n = 224) was allocated into 2 groups, a hypothermia group (n = 180) or a hyperthermia group (n = 44). We compared the various factors, including demographic factors and symptom-related factors, that might affect the results of DITI. Except the presence of trauma history (13.9% vs 31.8%, odds ratio 2.893, P = .008), no significant intergroup difference was found in baseline demographic factors, including age, gender, diabetes mellitus, spinal level of pathology, and intervention history. Among symptom-related factors, in the hyperthermia group, the symptom duration was shorter (10.64 weeks [95% confidence interval (CI) 8.36–13.04] vs 2.10 weeks [95% CI 1.05-3.53], P < .001) and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) of radicular pain was higher (4.23 ± 1.29 vs 5.18 ± 1.40, P < .001) than in the hypothermia group. Also, in the regression analysis, significant factors for hyperthermia include the presence of trauma history, shorter symptom duration (cut-off value 2.50 weeks or less) and higher VAS of radicular pain (cut-off value 4.50 or more). In patients with trauma history, acute phase, and severe radicular pain, hyperthermia in DITI is not unusual and careful interpretation of the DITI results is necessary for proper diagnosis and treatment decisions in spinal radiculopathy.

Abstract-Communication delay in a processor network is very critical to the throughput for parallel video processing. We propose a simultaneous distribution and collection method (SD) from the root processor to children processors via a multi-port switch network. For the proposed mechanism, we analyze the video encoding time and derive a closed-form solution for a star interconnection network topology. The results show that the total encoding time is significantly faster than the previous method, Parallel Interlaced (PI). In addition, we achieve scalability in terms of the number of processors, which means that as the number of processors increases over the optimal number of processors of PI, one continues to achieve much better performance.Index Terms-Parallel video scheduling, divisible load theory, concurrent communication, star network.

18Background 19 Decompressive craniectomy is an important surgical treatment for patients with severe traumatic brain 20 injury (TBI). Several reports have been published on the efficacy of non-watertight sutures in duraplasty 21 performed in decompressive craniectomy. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of dura closure 22 without sutures (non-suture duraplasty) in decompressive craniectomy for TBI. 23 Methods 24One hundred and six patients were enrolled at a single trauma center between January 2017 and 25 December 2018. We retrospectively collected the data and classified the patients into non-suture and 26 suture duraplasty craniectomy groups. We compared the characteristics of patients and their intra/post-27 operative findings such as operative time, blood loss, imaging findings, complications, and Glasgow 28 outcome scale. 29 Results 30There were 37 patients in the non-suture group and 69 in the suture craniectomy group. There were no 31 significant differences between the two groups with regard to general characteristics. The operative 32 time was 205 min for the suture duraplasty group and 150 min for the non-suture duraplasty group, and 33 that for the non-suture duraplasty group was significantly lesser (p=0.002). Blood loss was significantly 34 lesser in the non-suture duraplasty group (1000 mL) than in the suture duraplasty group (1500 mL, 35 p=0.028). There were no other significant differences. 36 Conclusion 37 Non-suture duraplasty involved shorter operative time and lesser blood loss when compared to suture 38 duraplasty. Other complications and prognosis were similar in both groups. Therefore, it can be 39 concluded that decompressive craniectomy with non-suture duraplasty is a safe and useful surgical 3 40 technique in patients with TBI. 4 41 130 the dura mater (i.e., 'watertight suture') because this has been thought to prevent various complications 9 131 such as infection, CSF leakage, and subgaleal fluid collection. However, the efficacy of watertight 132 suturing is not entirely known, especially in TBI cases. Recently, some authors have argued that 133 watertight suturing increases operative time and hospital costs, and the occurrence of complications is 134 similar to that in cases without watertight sutures [1, 2, 6]. Guresir et al.[1] introduced rapid closure 135decompressive craniectomy, which is not dura reconstruction, but filling of the dural defect with a 136 hemostat material. Non-suture duraplasty craniectomy is similar to rapid closure craniectomy, but uses 137 synthetic dura instead of the hemostat material to avoid adhesion in cranioplasty. This difference may 138 create higher costs for non-suture duraplasty craniectomy than rapid closure craniectomy, although 139 there may be surgical benefits such as shortened operative time due to inhibited adhesion at cranioplasty 140 subsequent to non-suture duraplasty craniectomy. 141The present study evaluated the operative time and blood loss as the comparable intra-operative 142 parameters. The non-suture duraplasty crani...

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